


Love Will Have it's Sacrifices, but Siblings Will Bicker

by StephaniD



Category: Carmilla (Web Series)
Genre: Gen, Pranks and Practical Jokes, Siblings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-03
Updated: 2018-02-13
Packaged: 2019-02-27 22:33:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 2,797
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13257996
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StephaniD/pseuds/StephaniD
Summary: Carmilla and Will seem very much to act like typical brother and sister, and I feel like a person's emotional maturity stops when they're bitten, so here's a bunch of short one-shots of Carm, Mattie, and Will acting like normal siblings. The first few chapters are in chronological order.Warning: contains mention of abuse





	1. Pranking Will

They were currently on the run. They were on the run and Maman wasn’t happy with them. In hindsight, convincing their baby brother that one of his vampiric powers was flight was perhaps not the best idea. But they had been bored, and William’s deathday was just over 25 years ago, so the sisters had played their prank for something to do. They’d convinced him too well, because like a young child, he’d tried to fly. He’d tried to fly out a tenth story window. He’d also done it near humans, the numbskull. He’d ended up with multiple broken bones, but alive, unlike a human would be. So they couldn’t come back to this town for a while. And Maman wasn’t letting them out of her sight, having magically bound Mircalla and Matska’s abilities so they couldn’t shift form, turn to smoke, or any other means of escape. William was in less trouble, his crime only having been an idiot. 


	2. Pranking Millarca

“Milly, there's a package for you from an M. Belmonde.” Her roommate told her, pointing to her bed. Millarca waited until the girl left the room to remove the brown paper. A letter and a cylindrical tin fell into her lap.  
_Hello Sister dear,_  
_In the container is African cocoa powder with some spices mixed in. Hope you still like hot chocolate._  
_Love, Your Matska_

Millarca eagerly got some water heating. When it was hot enough, she filled a mug and heaped her new cocoa in. It didn't smell like chocolate, but Millarca brushed it off. This was high-quality cocoa with African spices, it wouldn't act like store-bought.

Once it had dissolved into the water she took a big sip, and had to fight to not spit it out on herself. Dirt. Her sister had tricked her into drinking mud. She spat it in the sink, furiously brushing her teeth, glad her roommate wasn't here to see this.

The next day she had another package and letter.  
_Got you, didn't I? Here's your real cocoa._  
_Matska_  
Millarca sniffed the new powder suspiciously. It smelled like cocoa. She dipped a finger in the tin and stuck it in her mouth. It was cocoa. She'd have to get Mattie back for this, though. Somehow… 


	3. Helping Will

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you Darian T. for your help with Mattie’s animal form.

Maman said William was old enough to shift, and ordered her daughters to teach him. Matska easily shifted into a crowned eagle as they exited the house and lazily glided above. Mircalla flipped off her sister for abandoning her.   
“Okay, so, your animal has to do with your personality.” She sighed. “You have to just kinda… I dunno, feel it, reach inward.” She shrugged.  
“Really, Mercy?” Will crossed his arms, unbelieving. Mircalla clenched her jaw, Will knew she detested that nickname. Mattie swooped at him as she landed, causing him to duck, and scowl as she shifted back.  
“She’s telling the truth, baby brother. For once, Calla’s inability to find words isn’t due to a falsehood.” Mattie smiled as Mircalla pulled a face at her. “Shifting is incredibly difficult to describe, especially your first shift, which is, I suspect, why Maman isn’t here. I can barely remember the first time I did it.”  
“So, what, I have to meditate?” He scoffed.  
“Don’t knock it, William.” Matska glared at him. “Maman hasn’t taken you anywhere yet, has she?” He shook his head. “She won’t if you’re going to disrespect the cultures you’re experiencing and embarrass her." 

“So, shifting?” He asked. Mattie sighed.  
“Listen to what Calla told you, she's the one who shifted for the first time most recently.” The two younger vampires glared at each other. Matska sighed. “Honestly, I don't know what Maman was thinking, turning a couple of moody teenagers.” The older woman muttered. Their glares moved to her. “Admit it, this is going to take exponentially longer than when I helped Calla shift, because the two of you can't cooperate.”  
“How long did it take you?” Will enquired.  
“Three nights.” Mircalla replied.  
“I’ll consider us lucky if it takes three weeks. I need to remember to email my business associates that I won't be in town for a while.” Mattie pulled her PDA out and began working. Will stalked around the corner of the house.  
“Come on, Kitty!” He called, annoyance in his tone. She followed.

She found him sitting cross-legged on the ground, eyes closed.  
“What am I supposed to be feeling?” He grumbled.  
“Well, have you had any animals show up in your dreams? Any animal you've been thinking about oddly often?”  
“No. Maybe I'm too young for this.”  
“Do you want to go tell Maman she's wrong?” Mircalla snorted. “If you keep trying for long enough, eventually you'll be old enough and you'll shift. She won't lock us out your first night trying. So try.”  
“I am trying, look at me.”  
“You're arguing.”  
“But-”  
“Shut up. What's your favorite animal?”  
“I don't know. Maybe a dragon?”  
“Okay.” She sighed. “Focus inward. Can you feel a dragon, or anything dragon-like in yourself?” 

“We've been at this for a fortnight.” Will groaned, laying on the ground.  
“And we'll keep going until you learn to shift.” Matska replied, crossing another animal off her list. They'd started with the European view of dragons, with four legs and two wings, with two legs and two wings, then moved to the Chinese view of dragons, Komodo dragons, bearded dragons, seahorses, and were currently running through what felt like an interminable list of other lizards and reptiles, complete with pictures of each.  
“How long until Mother gets mad that I can't shift?”  
“Don't think about that, it'll distract you. How about snakes? Ever seen a python?”  
“It sounds familiar. Which one is it?” He'd seen so many lizards the past two weeks.  
“It’s a constrictor.” She showed him a picture. He sat up to look at it.  
“Yeah, I like this one.” He closed his eyes, breathing slowly, focusing on pythons. “My skin feels tight?” He commented.  
“Good, keep going.” Matska urged.  
“I can't.” He released the breath he'd been holding.  
“Okay, try again.”

Mircalla as a panther stalked in a wide circle around where her little brother was trying to shift. She didn’t understand why she had to be here, but Maman had ordered her. William was getting closer to a full shift every night. She laid her head on her paws to watch as he shrank and turned brown. He suddenly reverted, releasing the breath he’d been holding. She growled in annoyance as she stood, getting his attention. She walked over to where he sat and huffed in his face.  
“I know, I know, breathing.” He pushed her head to the side. “Ugh, you’ve got panther breath.” She watched, not laying down again until he started taking purposeful breaths. He shrank again, turning brown, but couldn’t complete it. She shifted back to human as he reached for his cup of blood.  
“Something’s blocking your shift.” She stated.  
“I’m trying, I am.” He protested between drinks of blood.  
“I think you might be trying for the wrong animal. Try a venomous snake instead.”  
“Which one?” He reached for their list. Mircalla kicked it away and lit it on fire.  
“Snake. Scales, fast, deadly, fangs, venom. Go.” She instructed, grabbing his blood.  
“Hey!”  
“You’ll get it back when you shift. Don’t forget to breathe.”  
“I’ll-”  
“Tell Maman? Fight me?” Mircalla interrupted. William was old enough to know that they were both bad ideas. “Sit. Try.” He did. “Breathe.”

He shrank, turned brown, got thinner, scaled. A snake was coiled on the ground, looking down at himself and repeatedly tasting the air. Mircalla reached for him and he lunged at her with a hiss. She quickly drew her hand back, then grabbed him behind the head with a snarl.  
“Maman will want to see.” She said as she carried him inside, his body wrapping around her wrist. “Maman, Matska!” She called. “William’s a snake!” They both appeared in the entryway. Mircalla put her brother on the floor. They all watched as he coiled up, then sat still for a minute.  
“Are you stuck?” Mircalla sighed. The snake nodded. “Gods, just do the same thing you did to shift. Reach inside, focus on being a vampire. It’s not hard.” She huffed. The snake hissed at her. “Just shut up and do it, you can’t drink blood unless you’re a vampire.” They all took a few steps back as the snake began to grow. William panted from the effort, lunging for the cup of blood in Mircalla’s hand. “Okay, that’s done, good morning.” Mircalla headed to her room. “Oh, and William, if you ever try to strike me again, I’ll bite your head off.”  
“It was an accident! Mother, I swear!” 


	4. Pranking Matska

“Carmilla, you have a package.” Maman called.  
“Thank you.” She went to take the box, but her mother held onto it.  
“What is this?”  
“Nothing important, Maman.” She tried to smile. “Just some, um, books. That I ordered online.” The older woman relinquished the box, looking at her suspiciously. 

“We’re doing it tonight, right Carm?” Will asked a few weeks later.  
“Yeah, I’ll bring Mattie by the southwest corner at 11, be ready.” She poked him in the chest. It wasn’t so much that she and her brother were friends, it was that he was the only one around with her sister being gone all the time. But she was visiting home, and Carmilla was looking forward to getting her back for the pranks she’d played the past hundred years.

 The sisters wandered around the building, Carmilla pretending to stare at the stars. She saw Will’s hands with a bucket exit the window above.   
“Oh, Mattie, have you read the Twilight books? They're very popular.”   
“I can’t say I have. What’re they about?” The older woman asked, just as Carmilla turned to smoke and innumerable miniscule pieces of plastic fell on her. Carmilla materialized a few feet away and started to laugh.   
“It’s about vampires that glitter.” She giggled. Above, they could hear Will chuckling, too.   
“Well in that case…” Mattie gathered a handful of the fine glitter from the ground and threw it in her sister’s face, who spluttered and spat, having gotten it in her mouth. Before Carmilla could react, Mattie had scooped up more and disappeared with a smirk.   
“Uh oh.” Carmilla could only imagine what sort of revenge her sister could wreak with about three cups of fine glitter.

 Carmilla stared at her room. Nearly every horizontal surface (including her unmade bed) had a dusting of glitter on it. She turned on her overhead fan to try to get some of it clean, and glitter rained down.   
“MIRCALLA KARNSTEIN!” She jumped and winced as Maman yelled for her. She didn’t think Mattie would have told, more that the prank wasn’t sophisticated and was easy to trace back to the perpetrators.

 They’d been beaten of course. Matska for not reacting fast enough, Will for helping, and Carmilla for masterminding and causing glitter to be tracked all throughout Maman’s house. Additionally, Carmilla had to clean the entire house, every night, for as long as the glitter remained. Maman had found silver-handled cleaning tools somewhere to make sure she really regretted her actions (where the fuck does one find a silver-handled vacuum?). Carmilla nearly screamed as she opened one of her favorite books to relax after cleaning and glitter fell out. 


	5. Sibling Jealousy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> -Takes place during 1.21 “Strategic Planning”-

It was a few days after Will had untied Carmilla from Laura's desk chair and practically told her he was trying to knock her out of her spot as Maman’s favorite. She decided to text him and ask. 

C: Are you genuinely trying to become Mother's new favorite child?  
W: Why, you nervous, Kitty?  
C: Never. Have fun being a Momma's Boy   
W: That selfish attitude is why I'm going to become the favorite   
C: Keep dreaming 

Carmilla smirked. If she played this right, she might be able to keep her Cupcake safe AND get William to kidnap her new target for her. Maman would yell at her of course, maybe beat her for not doing her own “chores”, but if her Cupcake was safe… She idly wondered when Will would figure out that being Maman's favorite wasn't all it was cracked up to be. Her phone buzzed as Will responded. 

W: This dream is going to turn into a nightmare for you when you get demoted to Errand Girl  
C: Oh, is that your title rn? William the Errand Boy?   
W: Feels like it. Always reporting to Mother and never getting anything right… But not for much longer.   
C: Yeah, yeah, so you've said. I don't think you're going to be able to follow through on it though, I've got nothing to worry about  
W: Just wait, Kitty. 

Carmilla snorted. Apparently sibling rivalry could be useful. 


	6. Fight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Going back in time from last chapter

Mircalla snarled at her little brother. She could deal with Matska teasing her about falling in love with her targets, but not brown-nosing little William. And it had only been a year since the sacrifice, the one she'd failed to protect the girl from. She'd been Arcillma, William had gone by Bill, her roommate had been “Lucky” Penny. Not so lucky. She'd been an artist, before she turned all party-crazy. And William had the gall to remind Mircalla. They circled each other for a few seconds before Maman appeared and ordered them outside, and not to kill each other. 

Mircalla teleported to a sturdy tree limb and shifted into a panther. William walked out of the house, looking for her. He wandered along the tree line, trying to spot her. She stilled her swishing tail, blending into the darkness, gathering her paws beneath herself. She sprang. She landed on William, who quickly shifted into a huge snake. He'd gotten more proficient at his shifting, evidenced by his quick shift, and the fact that he no longer shrank, but kept his mass. He tried to strike at one of her paws, but she reared up on her hind legs, trying to land on his many ribs when she came down. He quickly slithered out of range, the siblings hissing at each other. 

Mircalla's tail lashed the air as she paced in front of her brother. He shot forward, lunging at her, landing on her back and starting to wrap around her torso. ' _ You're not a constrictor, dumbass. _ ’ Mircalla found herself thinking. She twisted her head round, her teeth scraping along his scales. She grabbed hold on her second try. She pulled, but he hung on. She bit down harder and yanked, ripping him off her and throwing his body about as she shook her head. He hissed, but being tossed about, he couldn't aim to strike at her again. Mircalla threw him to the side, the two of them hissing again. He slithered slowly forward, barely moving the grass with his movements. She crouched, growling, ready to spring at him, when he struck. 

She tried to bat him to the side in midair and missed. She yowled as his fangs sank into her upper foreleg. She bit down around him, feeling a few snaps of his ribs, he released his bite. She bounded up a tree, slightly clumsy due to the pain of putting weight on her injured leg. William wrapped himself around her face and neck. She got high enough, shaking her head and pawing at William to try and get him off her, but he held tighter. She sat harder than she wanted to, her hind legs weakening. William moved his head to look at her face, tongue flicking out. She tried to snarl but it wasn't as effective as she'd like. Her wound burned and she was having trouble breathing, William tight around her throat, but she wasn’t going to admit defeat. She toyed with the idea of simply falling out of the tree and landing on William, but that might kill him and then Maman would be mad. She brought up a hind leg, scratching at him like she'd scratch an itch on her ear. He hissed and moved, she quickly shook her head and pawed at him again, pushing him off her head. She watched him fall and wrap himself around a tree branch. She growled low in her throat, but she couldn't continue the fight. Hopefully he'd broken a few more ribs against the branch. She padded down a few branches before leaping to the ground, her graceful landing marred when she stumbled on her hurt leg. She shifted back and glared at William, holding her arm where he'd bitten her. He flicked his tongue at her as he descended the tree. 

“You better not have used venom.” She hissed, heading for the house. She heard William groan in pain behind her as he shifted back to a vampire and she smirked in triumph. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I headcanon that the vampires are more mortal when shifted. If Mircalla breaks too many of William's ribs, his heart or lungs or something could get punctured. 
> 
> Done for now, but that may very well change, especially if anyone has any ideas they'd like to suggest in comments.

**Author's Note:**

> If you have any suggestions for future chapters, I'd love to hear them!


End file.
